In results that were presented to the 162nd meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Scotland, researchers in Egypt have discovered yet another amazing property of green tea. This time, green tea appears to make the antibiotics you might take three times more effective.
These researchers started from the premise of concern about the effect of green tea on the efficacy of antibiotics because green tea is a very popular drink in Egypt. They thought the tea might interfere with the medicines.
However, they found instead that the tea made the bacteria more susceptible even when low concentrations of green tea were used. The study tested green tea and antibiotics on twenty-eight different bacteria that belonged to two different classes. The tea enhanced the medicines’ effects every time.
In a quote from Dr. Mervat Kassem of Alexandria University, “Our results show that we should consider more seriously the natural products we consume in our everyday life.” All I could think was, “DUH!”
Source: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/03/31/green_tea_boosts_antibiotic_effectiveness/1574/
Filed under Tea by on Apr 1st, 2008. 
While one would not immediately think of Coca-Cola when thinking of tea, looks like the time has come in a big way. Not only has Coca-Cola bought a big chunk of Honest Tea, it is affecting the sale of Arizona Tea.
Coca-Cola Enterprises who distributes 80% of Coca-Cola’s North American bottle and can inventory has announced that they are dropping most of the distribution of Arizona Tea starting in May except in areas that will not carry Glaceau enriched waters. Coca-Cola bought Glaceau last year and owns 35% of Coca-Cola Enterprises stock, so they own a good chunk of their major distributor as well. Coca-Cola didn’t particularly like CCE delivering a product that competed with their own Nestea and Gold Peak tea products.
What is pushing all this buying up of small non carbonated drink companies is a surge in sales of non carbonated drinks and a slump in carbonated drink sales. For instance, Glaceau has increased their sales volume by 100% or better for the last four years. Glaceau makes Vitaminwater and Smartwater. Smartwater hasn’t made it to where I live but I sure have seen an increase in the number of bottles of Vitaminwater on store shelves.
Although I will not mourn the passing of Arizona Teas from most areas as most seemed to be made with high fructose corn syrup (only found one that didn’t have it at only one store during a trip this last weekend), it is a bit scary about all the small tea companies being bought up by the big corporations or others. Have another post later about another such buy out of a small tea company.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/coke/stories/2008/04/01/arizona_0402.html
Filed under Tea by on Apr 2nd, 2008.
As mentioned in the post yesterday, it seems small tea companies are being bought out by larger companies. In today’s case, it is the small company Sweet Leaf Tea which, like Honest Tea, provides ready-to-drink non-carbonated teas and lemonade.
This time the small tea company was bought by a private equity firm called Catterton Partners. This, like the sale of a chunk of Honest Tea to Coca-Cola, is being driven by the slump in soda sales and the upswing in non-carbonated drink sales. The Beverage Digest, which is a trade publication, said that sales of ready-to-drink teas rose 20.5 per cent last year in retail stores.
Guess that’s a pretty good reason for the companies and firms with money to spend to buy into these small tea companies.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804011758DOWJONESDJONLINE000746_FORTUNE5.htm
Filed under Tea by on Apr 3rd, 2008.